June. 1913. 



203 



American IBee Journal 



rules there are exceptions, which, in 

 this case, hardly except or prove any- 

 thing. 



First, there are the Caucasians, great 

 honey gatherers, that do not sting 

 much, at least on paper. Then there 

 are the "gentle strains of Italians," 

 most of which crawl delightfully calm 

 and placid over the comb as you hold 

 it up to the admiration of a friend. 



" But they will sting !" 



" Oh, no, they won't." 



You open a hive with the Maeter- 

 linckian "large, slow gestures," and 

 you say, " See how easy it is. Not even 

 gloves or veil needed." You show a 

 super well packed, and you say, " Great 

 honey gatherers these are; none bet- 

 ter in my apiary." . 



And all the time you are saying to 

 yourself, " How they did sting when I 

 opened the hive that rainy morning, 

 hunted for the queen, found her, took 

 out the frame and put it in an exhibi- 

 tion single-frame hive." 



Or there was that day in late No- 

 vember, "'hen you opened the hive to 

 see if evc.y:hing was right for the 

 winter. 



Sting! On both these memorable 

 occasions, the thermometer said cool- 

 but you know it was a lie— the hottest 

 on record. It was a reminiscent day. 

 It took you back to boyhood hours 

 when you plowed up a yellow jackets' 

 nest, and your trousers, your shirt, 

 your face and your hands were speckled 

 with crescentic yellow polka dots. The 

 horses, you remember, left at once the 

 plodding, prosy life of agricuture and 

 entered the race course across the 

 field, and you quickly decided to go in 

 the same direction as an expression of 

 sympathy. 



Yes, any bees worth having will 

 sting on occasion. And I'm mighty 

 glad they will. What a lot of suffering, 

 ill-kept apiaries there would be if we 

 didn't have the sharp stings to punch 

 out of the ranks those bee-keepers who 

 don't really love bees. If it wasn't for 

 the stings everybody would keep bees 

 as they keep cats, and that would make 

 you sick of honey. 



So when this statement confronts 

 you, " But they will sting!" don't dodge 

 it. Just say, "Sting! of course they 

 will." I wish they would sting ten 

 times as bad. We then would have 

 fewer bee-keepers who don't really ap- 

 preciate these wonderful insects, and 

 we would have less joy in overcom- 

 ing the difficulties of bee-keeping. 



When vou handle bees without veil 

 or glovesi it is like having your photo- 

 graph taken— it is a special occasion- 

 it doesn't show you as you ordinarily 

 are, nor the bees either. And now let's 

 make another confession, public opin- 

 ion to the contrary notwithstanding. 

 The experienced bee-man has nerves. 

 even if he knows how to control them, 

 and he can feel. Pain to him is pain, 

 the same as to any one else. And he 

 can cast no hypnotic spell, nor do the 

 bees " know him " any better than they 

 know any one else of similar tempera- 



ment, disposition and apiarian knowl- 

 edge. 



So it is best to be frank at the first, 

 and not to try to popularize bees on a 

 false basis. Yes. bees can^ sting, and 

 they do sting, and they won't make an 

 exception of you. Perhaps the bees of 

 some colonies won't sting, but they 

 will not be your favorites — that is 

 among the Italian bees. -\nd there are 

 certain times and certain conditions of 

 the hive when bees with cpreful hand- 

 ling will not sting; that is, not much. 

 But if you are a faithful and enthusias- 

 tic bee-keeper you cannot limit all 

 your handling to those particular in- 

 nocuous periods. It is in the unfavor- 

 able times that you will need the best 

 protection. 



For a long time I have made a care- 

 ful study of bee-veils and bee-gloves. 

 How perfectly protected one's head 

 looks in the illustration that advertises 

 the veil! But most veils in actual prac- 

 tice fail to reach the ideal of the pic- 

 ture. The loose ones that slip over the 

 hat won't work. The bottom mu5t be 

 firmly fastened down, as the bees will 

 not make the attack horizontally. Some 

 of them have an insidious, not to say 

 familiar, manner of crawling up under 

 the edges. Then as the apiarist bends 

 in his work, the veil "flops" against 

 the cheek or the nose, or especially the 

 neck, and that is exactly the opportu- 

 nity that the vindictive insect will not 

 allow to pass unimproved. The Globe 

 veil looks well, and the theory is right. 

 The stiff bands are to hold the veil 

 away from the face. And so they do. 

 But they leave the neck unprotected. I 

 have never felt that it is fair play to let 

 the nose and the cheeks go free, and 

 have a band of stings around the neck. 



After much experience I have found 

 the most satisfactory veil to be one 

 that ties around the body, and may be 

 pulled fairly taut so as to hold all 

 parts away from the face. The hat 

 brim must be really broad or the veil 

 will not be held far enough away from 

 one's features. To meet this objection 

 I have made a " skeleton frarne " of 

 stiff yet light weight wire to slip over 

 the hat. That holds all parts away 

 from the face, and not the most active 

 and ingenious bee can crawl up under it. 

 It gives coolness, lightness, and abso- 

 lute immunity from stings. In brief, 

 it is the best that I have ever tried, 

 and I have tried all that I ever heard 

 of. It is the only one in which I am 

 sure that I shall not get stung on the 

 head. 



On most questions pertaining to 

 bees, I suppose that I shall be studying 

 and investigating as long as I live. 

 The rubber-glove question is an excep- 

 tion. So far as I am concerned, I have 

 settled that for all times. Rubber is 

 not the proper material. It is not a 

 question of immunity nor non-immu- 

 nity from stings. The vital point is 

 preliminary to that, and is comparable 

 to the faiiious recipe for cooking a 

 hare— first catch him. With gloves the 

 supreme points are : 



1. Getting them on. 



2. Wearing them. 



3. Taking them off. 



During warm weather rubber gloves 

 on perspiring hands fail to meet these 

 requirements. Protecting the hands 

 from stings while at work with bees 

 isn't much different in principle from 

 protecting them from stains while 

 weeding the garden, or from scratches 

 when pulling up briers. The prime 

 things are comfort and convenience. 

 Rubber gloves afford neither. 



The ideal glove should be of some 

 woven fabric that will prevent the 

 passage of stings. Long cotton gloves 

 with an elastic band to bindthem firmly 

 around the arm just above the elbow 

 have the right form. I wear them when 

 stings are most to be expected. I am 

 not in favor of oil-skin gloves. Plain 

 lund cotton cloth is the best material. 

 A secondary pair of gloves for special 

 occasions, a cold or rainy day for in- 

 stance, may be bought at most clothing 

 stores for 10 cents. I have found it 

 convenient to protect only the left 

 hand, and use that for the dangerous 

 work. 



Such cotton gloves are not as good 

 protectors when new as when they 

 have been used a little ; then propolis, 

 comb, etc., give them a waxy-hard coat- 

 ing and filling through which stings 

 will not pass. But in agreeableness 

 this treatment of the gloves is much 

 better than oiling. With such an equip- 

 ment you can meet " But they will 

 sting " by " No, they can I sting." I have 

 worked for half a day at a time under 

 unfavorable conditions, performing for 

 certain colonies most meddlesome op- 

 erations, but not a bee reached through 

 to lance me. 



.\rcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



Swiss Bee-Keeping 



BY C. I'. D.MIANT .\N1) EI) BERTR..\ND. 



THE discussion which has taken 

 place at different dates, in the 

 American Bee Journal, between 

 Mr. Getaz and our Swiss friends, 

 may not seem useful to some of 

 our readers. Yet it brings out two 

 facts: First, the Italian bee, which is 

 so much prized in the United States, 

 and which has evidently proven better 

 than the black race to fight European 

 foul brood, does not maintain its repu- 

 tation in Switzerland. Whether it is 

 owing to a better grade of bees in the 

 Swiss valleys, or whether the moist 

 and cool climate of Switzerland is un- 

 suitable for the Italian race, the testi- 

 mony of our Swiss correspondents 

 cannot be disputed. It is worth while 

 to investigate this, for we have, on the 

 Pacific coast, a number of regions 

 where the climate is very similar to 

 that of Switzerland. 



Second, the Swiss bee-keepers are 

 carrying on a desirable method, if it 

 proves practical, that of keeping " mat- 

 ing stations" where only selected 

 drones are permitted to exist. It re- 

 mains to be seen whether it is possible 

 to so isolate such stations that there 



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